Adrian Pitches
BBC World
He was missing for 80 years… Until a sick hiker rediscovered it.
Sillem's montane finch, on the tibetan plateau, has been an enigma since its discovery in 1929, especially because it was not identified until 1992.
Dutch ornithologist Jerome Alexander Sillem captured two specimens of this gray and white bird, the size of a sparrow and with a reddish head, during an expedition to the Karakorum mountain range in 1929.
Today this border region is in dispute between China, India and Pakistan and is a prohibited area for bird watchers.
The samples were labeled as a breed of the Brandt mountain finch (Leucosticte brandti) and kept in a drawer in the Amsterdam Zoological Museum.
They remained there until 1992, when Dutch ornithologist Kees Roselaar opened the drawer and realized that both specimens were a distinct species in their own right. Roselaar, so, baptized the new species Leucosticte we behave, in honor of its original discoverer.
But then track of this species was lost. Until June of this year, when French nature photographer Yann Muzika was hiking in the Yenigou Valley, in the Chinese province of Qinghai.
However, He contracted food poisoning on the eve of his departure which forced him to stay in camp.
Muzika remembers history: "Después del segundo día, I decided to take a day off and explore the surroundings as much as my condition would allow..
"Aunque mi intención era hacer una caminata, not a bird watching excursion, I brought a camera and a lens 400 mm, just in case.
a different bird
"Me encontré con una bandada de carpodacos tibetanos (Carpodacus roborowskii) and among them there was a single bird that I did not know, similar to Brandt's finch but with reddish head instead of dark brown. I took a photo of it before it flew away..
"Al regresar a casa, I just downloaded the images and left them there for a few weeks. I still couldn't identify the finch but in a guide to the birds of China I saw a brief description of the Sillem's finch that seemed to match it quite closely.… But in that case we were talking about a bird that had not been seen since 1929.
"Como estaba llegando al límite de mis conocimientos sobre las aves, I sent that photo and others taken during the trip to Krys Kazmierczak, quien gestiona la base de datos del Club de Aves Orientales".
De inmediato se dio cuenta de la importancia de la foto de esa "ave misteriosa" that I had received by email.
The expert told the BBC: "Cuando vi esa excelente foto del ave misteriosa mi primer pensamiento fue: '¡It's a Sillem finch!'. However, how I am prudent, hice algunas verificaciones y consulté con colegas".
"Ahora estamos bastante seguros de que es un pinzón de Sillem, especially since the thesis has been supported by Kees Roselaar, who just said: '¡Fantastic! Finally the proof that the behave todavía existe'", Kazmierczak added..
The bird was found in June 2012, 1.500 kilometers east of the site where it was discovered in 1929.
Now, The Eastern Bird Club is urging bird watchers to look for the bird at a height of 5.000 meters along a vast strip between Pakistan, China and Tibet.
